


Pride of America

by hfullsun



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cruise Ship, Hawaii, LMAO, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Takes Place in Hawaii, bc idk what else to tag rn LOL, haechan is 19, loosely based on my experience working there but obviously i didnt have some crazy love story, mark is 20, the time stamps are linear don't worry i just added them for effect, the title is called that bc thats the name of the ship..... i hope they don't sue me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:41:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25742992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hfullsun/pseuds/hfullsun
Summary: The thing about deck 14 is that, in order to get there, you need to pass through deck 13, which is a guest area. It’s only about a 30 second walk between crew areas, but he’s still required to be ready for any guest interactions.What he’s not prepared for is the telltale sound of someone stifling a sob, followed by sniffling.The only figure he can make out in the moonlight is that of a teenage boy leaning against the railing. Mark stops in his tracks, waiting for his eyes to adjust better in the dark setting before— Oh. It’s the cute boy from earlier. And he’s… crying?OR the au where Mark works on a cruise ship and Donghyuck is a passenger.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Pride of America

**Saturday, 8:12 PM**

Mark is stressed.

The past 24 hours have been hell, and he can’t seem to catch a break. First, his alarm neglected to go off, making him shoot up in a panic when his roommate left by slamming the door. Then, he couldn’t find his crew ID badge, sending him into a deeper panic as he literally tore his room apart. It ended up being on the shelf _exactly_ where he left it. He was 2 minutes late to work and it didn’t go unnoticed by his supervisor. 

Saturdays are the worst, everyone knows this, so when Mark showed up looking all disheveled and panicked, he thought they would go easy on him. 

They didn’t. 

Now, after hours of hauling luggage (which was probably twice his weight) he’s back to his normal position; cleaning the guest areas on deck 5. It’s honestly not a hard job, but Saturdays defy that. 

It’s the first night of the cruise, with a whole new batch of guests that just embarked earlier that day. Mark’s section is essentially the main lobby, main lounge, main hallway, and main dining. _Everyone_ comes here on Saturday nights to explore what they’ll be living with for the next 7 days. And everyone seems to be drunk.

Mark rolls his eyes as two intoxicated ladies stumble into each other, laughing loudly, exclaiming how they can’t get used to the movement of the ship. Mark didn’t even feel anything. 

(Picking up glasses, collecting trash, and making sure everything looks tidy is what Mark focuses on during his evening shift. There are too many people to do any _actual_ cleaning, so he prioritizes appearance over all.)

There’s currently nothing to do. After walking his section three times, he has collected all the empty glasses that have been left. So now what? When there’s nothing to do, he can’t just not do anything, _especially_ at night. Night is when all the officers are walking around, and if it doesn’t look like he’s doing his job, his supervisor will definitely be hearing about it. 

Mark sighs as he grabs a blue rag and a spray bottle of sanitizer. There’s only 45 minutes left of his shift. He can get through this. He’ll just sanitize everything a couple times and then _finally_ clock out. 

As he’s wiping down one of the tables in the lounge area, loud yelling from the Guest Services desk catches his attention. He glances over. 

“On the website, it said our suite would have two entrances. Two! We only have one!” A large man in a suit yells, wildly waving his arms for emphasis at the innocent guest services associate that Mark recognizes to be Mina. Poor girl. 

The commotion didn’t stop anyone else — other than a few people around the desk — thankfully. The music and chatter is probably too loud. But Mark is bored, so he pays attention as he keeps wiping the same table. 

Mina looks flustered as she tries to accommodate the man and his family, but the ship is apparently full, so their family can’t change rooms. When Mina relays this to the man, it only angers him more. 

As he begins yelling again, Mark takes notice of the man’s family. There’s a beautiful woman standing next to him, probably his wife, Mark geniusly deduces. Although she looks far too young, he wouldn’t doubt it. Many of the guests here are the rich sugar daddy type. It’s normal.

What’s _not_ normal is the cute boy standing behind them both, looking embarrassed as hell. 

There aren’t usually any passengers around Mark’s age on the ship, because the cruise is aimed towards elderly people. Honestly, it had bothered Mark at first, but passengers and crew don’t really interact that often, so he eventually stopped caring. All of his coworkers are around his age, though, and that’s all that matters. 

Plus, it makes the golden rule easier to abide by. _Crew cannot fraternize with guests._

That’s why Mark is so caught off guard when he sees, who he assumes to be, the man’s son. He looks to be about Mark’s age, maybe a little younger. He has perfectly styled brown hair, tan skin, and a nice, form-fitting suit that matches his father’s. 

The boy opens his mouth like he's about to speak up, but he never does. He just stands there, letting his father make a scene, almost like he’s used to it. The boy's eyes glaze over in a way that has Mark furrowing his eyebrows.

Melodious ringing brings Mark back to reality, snapping him out of his thoughts about the mysterious cute boy. It’s his work phone. Fear runs through him as he quickly answers it, knowing it’s probably a supervisor about to yell at him for something. 

“Aloha, this is Mark!” He answers like he always does, because _this is Hawaii_ , his boss always says, _treat everything like you’re a native._

“ _You’ll never guess what the fuck just happened._ ” Comes the voice from the other end, which he immediately identifies to be his best friend, Johnny. 

“What?” Mark asks distractedly, still staring at the unusual boy. 

“ _Ten just talked to me first!”_ Johnny exclaims. 

“Nice.” He replies, watching as the boy bites his lip, as if physically holding back from saying something to his father. Interesting. 

“ _I wonder if he finally realized how hot I am. He’s never initiated a conversation before, it was always me bothering him first. You know how he’s super sarcastic? He was being nice today! What’s happening? Is Mercury in retrograde? It is, isn’t it?”_

Mark lets Johnny ramble about his crush, Ten, who happens to be the manager of the kids center that Johnny is in charge of cleaning. His infatuation was instant, reporting to Mark every single time they interacted. Mark finds them cute as fuck. 

“Is Mercury in what?” 

_“Are you even listening?”_

Honestly, he’s not. The cute boy said something inaudible to his father, making his father glare at him in the coldest way Mark has ever seen. Yikes. 

“Of course I am. Ten talked to you so, obviously, a planet is in gatorade.” 

“ _Retrograde._ ”

“Sure.”

“ _Are you good, bro?”_ Johnny asks after a short pause. 

“Sort of. Saturdays, man.”

“ _Ah, Saturdays."_ Johnny gets it. “ _I hear ya. But, think of it this way: we’re one week closer to the end of our contracts. We can make it!”_

Mark closes his eyes with a sigh. He’d rather not think of it that way. 

Everyone in their department is under a five month contract. Meaning, after five months, they get to go on a five week vacation and decide whether or not to sign on for another contract. It sounds like a nice gig, but Mark doesn’t think so. 

The reason he chose this job was to get away from his home. When he dropped out of college in the middle of his very first semester, his parents weren’t exactly happy for him. They hounded on him to either go back and get a degree, or find a job that he can make a living from. Mark couldn’t take their disappointed gazes and passive aggressive comments anymore, so he chose a job that took him as far away from home as possible. 

It’s better than he expected. Free living, free food, and a constant inflow of cash. Plus, he’s exploring Hawaii whilst doing so. All of this made him realize that he never wants to go back home. There isn’t anything there for him anyway, other than parents with too high expectations. 

He has no idea what he’s going to do for those five weeks in between contracts. Road trip across America? Backpack across Europe? Airbnb a random house in a random country and just get high for five weeks straight? 

He’ll cross that bridge when he comes to it. 

“Yeah, we’ll make it!” He agrees, deciding to fake optimism. 

“ _Alright, back to the grind. Let’s get this bread.”_ Johnny ends the call with a _click_ echoing over the line. 

Mark pockets his work phone and immediately glances back over at the Guest Services desk, only to find an elderly couple in the place of where the cute boy was just minutes ago. He frowns a little, wishing he had kept an eye on the boy instead of getting distracted by the phone call. 

With another sigh, this one heavier, he continues cleaning his section. 

  
  


**Saturday, 10:28 PM**

The crew deck was Mark’s favorite place to go on nights when they’re sailing. He’s still 20 so he can’t go to the crew bar, he doesn’t smoke so he can’t go to the crew smoking deck, and sitting alone in the crew mess hall would just be lame. 

The view of the stars from off the coast of an island in the middle of the pacific ocean is something Mark will never get used to. He likes to just lay there while listening to music and look at the constellations for _hours._ Literal hours. He wonders where his roommates think he’s been when he comes in at 2am on nights when they can’t even get off the ship. 

Slipping on his shoes (and making sure he has on his name tag, because he’s not allowed _anywhere_ without it pinned onto his left breast), he makes his way out of his room and up to deck 14, blasting a playlist he made when he was 16 and angsty. 

The thing about deck 14 is that, in order to get there, you need to pass through deck 13, which is a guest area. It’s only about a 30 second walk between crew areas, but he’s still required to be ready for any guest interactions. It rarely happens, especially to Mark, a quiet looking guy with earphones in and eyes glued to the ground. 

Still, he lowers his music and prepares to be asked the routine _‘where’s the nearest restroom?’_ to which he’ll respond _‘down those stairs and to the right’_. 

What he’s _not_ prepared for, is the telltale sound of someone stifling a sob, followed by sniffling. Mark risks glancing up just so he can make sure it’s not an injured passenger, because he would be _so fired_ if he walked past someone who was hurt. 

The only figure he can make out in the moonlight is that of a teenage boy, leaning against the railing. Mark stops in his tracks, waiting for his eyes to adjust better in the dark setting before— _Oh._ It’s the cute boy from earlier. And he’s… crying?

Every ‘ _vacation hero'_ training session he’s ever had flashes through his mind. What is he supposed to do when he comes across a crying passenger? _What does he do when they’re cute?_

After the rough day he’s had, it’s no surprise when his mind turns up blank. Even his last braincell can’t think of a proper way to handle this situation. So, he just continues to watch the boy silently cry into the view of the open ocean. 

Just as Mark decides to continue walking, the boy takes a step closer to the edge and leans his upper body over the railing. Mark’s heart rate picks up as he starts to panic. _Fuck,_ is this kid about to jump?

Of course, he’s heard the horror stories from the stateroom stewards who worked on international ships. He’s heard all about passengers locking themselves out on their balcony and jumping while the helpless stewards watched from the inside, not having enough time to get the master key. 

But this is so different. Mark is probably about ten feet behind the boy. All he has to do is say something, maybe even run up and physically hold him back. He probably wouldn’t get in trouble if he was doing it to save the guy’s life, right?

The boy leans over even more, and before Mark can even process it, he yells “Don’t jump!”

In what Mark can only assume to be shock, the boy flinches, almost actually falling over the railing. He quickly steps back, stabilizing himself for a second, before bending down and letting out a loud laugh. 

Mark is still glued to his spot, watching the scene unfold before him. 

Still laughing, the boy turns around and sits down with his back against the metal rails. He pulls his knees up to his chest and just laughs into them. It’s an odd contrast to the way Mark had found him. The switch between sobbing and laughing almost makes Mark dizzy. 

Gulping, he takes a step closer. “Are you okay?”

The boy looks up at Mark but continues to laugh as he wipes away his tears with the back of his sleeve. When they make eye contact, Mark raises an eyebrow, as if silently repeating the question. The boy bites his lip to quiet his laughs, then shakes his head a little. “You know, I wasn’t going to jump.”

Mark blinks. “Oh.” That elicits another bark of laughter out of the cute boy, only furthering Mark’s confusion. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—“

“No,” the boy cuts him off with a smile, “don’t worry. You’re good. I said I wasn’t going to jump, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t _want_ to.”

Mark lets that sentence roll around in his head before he can fully understand what it means. His eyes widen and he takes a couple steps closer to the boy, finally closing the distance and standing right in front of him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Still sitting, the boy’s eyes rake over him, finally taking in Mark’s appearance under the pale moonlight. Mark notes how his gaze lingers on his left breast. “You’re a crew member?”

“Yeah.” Mark confirms, wondering if that will make the boy uncomfortable. 

“Are you going to report me to the captain?”

It’s Mark’s turn to laugh now, a giggle bubbling out of his throat before he can stop it. The boy’s eyes narrow in confusion and Mark just shakes his head. “I don’t even think I rank high enough to look him in the eye when I pass him in the hallway, let alone call him at 11pm about some cute boy who didn’t even try to jump overboard.” 

The boy smiles and Mark’s heart flutters, before realizing that he just called him cute to his face.

Shit. The types of passengers that board this ship are traditionally very conservative. Mark would need three hands to count how many Trump hats he sees on a weekly basis. 

“You think I’m cute?” The boy asks, voice unreadable. 

Mark looks up to the full moon that’s lighting up the sky, casting an eerie glow on the deck around them. He bites his lip, before looking back down at the boy. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

The boy is silent for a moment, and Mark assumes he’s about to call him weird and leave. Maybe even report him to guest services. But instead the boy just gives a tired smile and says, “My dad.”

Mark stays silent, hoping the boy will continue, but he doesn’t. “Was he the one inquiring about your room entrances earlier in the lobby?” Mark asks, trying not to come off as rude. 

The boy blushes, visible in the moonlight. He shrinks in on himself even more, making himself smaller than Mark thought was possible. “You saw that?” He asks quietly, as if he’s ashamed. 

“It was kind of hard not to,” Mark says without thinking, but quickly backtracks when the boy gets even _smaller_. “I mean—! Sorry, I-I work on deck 5 all day, every day, s-so I wouldn’t exactly be doing my job if I wasn’t there.” He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, feeling like somewhat of a stalker for the first time in his life. 

The boy laughs again, self depreciation ringing in the cool ocean air. “It’s okay. It’s probably hard not to pay attention to scenes like that.”

Mark feels bad. Like, really bad. His instincts are screaming at him to just scoop the boy up into his arms and protect him from everything bad in the world. “Does he usually make scenes like that?” Mark asks tentatively, feeling like he’s overstepping. 

The boy just sighs defeatedly, nodding his head a little as he looks down, which makes his fringe fall in front of his eyes. “My father lives in his own world. If something isn’t exactly how he wants it, he’d rather tear the universe apart than make any type of compromise.”

Mark’s heart aches in his chest. Literally aches. He’s the first one to understand how annoying and painful family can be, but seeing it affect someone so _young_ and seemingly _innocent_ just makes him want to throw something or cry. Or both.

Turning his back to the railing as well, Mark sits down next to the boy and bumps their shoulders together. “Man, that sucks,” is all he can offer, because _it does_. 

The boy laughs again, this time brighter, as he shakes the hair out of his eyes to meet Mark’s. “Yeah, I guess it does suck.” He says with a smile. 

They stare at each other for a moment, Mark getting lost in the boy’s eyes, which he’s now noticing for the first time to be big and round. It almost looks like there’s a sparkle in them, but he chalks it up to the full moon’s reflection. They’re both wearing small smiles, he belatedly realizes, and breaks their eye contact as he looks to the ground, blushing. 

“You’re pretty cute too, you know,” the boy says out of nowhere, sounding more confident than he has all night. Mark’s blush deepens as he feels his heart do flips in his chest. He licks his lips as he looks farther down, into his lap, and tries to fight a smile. 

“I—I don’t know about that.” He’s sure he sounds breathless, but that’s just what the boy does to him. He took Mark’s breath and Mark can’t even be mad about it. 

“Mark,” the boy says, trying to get Mark to meet his eyes again. It works, but only because of how confused it made him.

“What? How do you know my n—“

“Your name tag,” the boy laughs, like it’s the most obvious thing ever. Mark actually glances down, forgetting he has his name and job pinned to his shirt. 

“Oh,” he says as he stares at his upside down name. 

“I’m Donghyuck.”

Mark lifts his eyes again to meet the boy’s — _no_ Donghyuck’s eyes. The name suits him, Mark thinks. 

“Hi, Donghyuck.” Mark tests the name on his tongue. It sends a shiver down his spine, which could just be the ocean breeze, but Mark can’t deny there’s something about Donghyuck that affects him more than anyone he’s ever met. 

They stare at each other again, this time feeling a lot more intense than the last. It’s like there’s a magnet between them, pulling them together so effortlessly. There’s no resisting a force like this, not when the moon is so bright and Donghyuck’s eyes are so clear. 

Mark’s breath mingles with Donghyuck’s, and that’s when he takes the risk. 

_Fuck it_ , he thinks, _when will I ever meet a passenger like this again?_

Mark tilts his head the tiniest bit to the right, and just barely brushes his lips against Donghyuck’s. They’re both still, as if waiting for the other to finally do something. Time seems to halt, making this simple moment last forever. 

Then, the ship rocks a little, nudging Mark right into Donghyuck where their lips lock together and they both sigh through their noses. The force was strong enough to have Mark reaching out, grabbing onto Donghyuck’s collar to keep himself steady. 

They kiss slowly. Delicately. Mark afraid one wrong move will send Donghyuck running, and Donghyuck afraid Mark’s too good to be true. 

The younger tilts his head more towards the left, and they kiss one last time before breaking their movements. But they stay there, breathing each other’s air, hoping the other will break the tension.

The sound of the waves and the rushing of Mark’s blood pressure almost drowns out Donghyuck’s words. “Thank you.” It’s said soft and quiet, much like the boy’s lips, but Mark can hear the emotion behind it. 

Although, before Mark can conjure up a reply, Donghyuck stands, lightly brushing off his pants, before disappearing into the guest area. 

Mark is left wondering what the _fuck_ just happened. 

**Author's Note:**

> hiii thank u for reading it really means a lot!! comments are also encouraged!! yes this is currently a work in progress but i actually finished the outline on this story so it definitely will be getting completed...... not @ my other fic LMAO i'm sorry if ur waiting for an update on that one it kinda slipped away from me :D outlines are important before committing i guess
> 
> also because this fic deals with a job most of you probably arent familiar with pls let me know if i need to explain anything with more detail <3


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